Use digital technology to deal with infrastructural constraints of Law School-US Law Professor

A Professor of Law at the California Western School of Law and a Fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, Prof Richard Frimpong Oppong is advocating for the use of the array of digital technology tools to deal with infrastructural and staffing constraints in Ghana’s Law school.

According to him, digital technology offers the attractive possibility of making legal education more efficient and effective.

Speaking at Day 2 of the 55th Series of the JB Danquah Memorial Lecture, Prof. Oppong noted that the existing attitude that all legal education should take place within the four corners of bricks-and-mortar walls with its attendant challenges can easily be overcome through the use of effective digital technological tools.

“Some of the current constraints on legal education reflect the existing attitude that all legal education should take place within the four corners of bricks-and-mortar walls. However, should that continue to be the case, given the existing physical infrastructural and staffing constraints?”

“I argue that digital technology offers the attractive possibility of making legal education more efficient and effective. At present, there is an array of Learning Management Systems (LMSs) available, such as Blackboard, Moodle, TWEN and Canvas, all of which facilitate teaching and learning. The effective deployment of these LMSs and the digital technologies embedded within them, combined with synchronous and asynchronous online teaching, or a blend of online and face-to-face instruction, could overcome some of the challenges of our physical educational infrastructure. This will open up much-needed access to students.”

Even though he admits that an exclusive online law degree and professional programs are not suitable for us at this stage of our development, Prof Oppong called for the delivery of some of our undergraduate, professional law courses or parts of it using existing online LMSs.